THE finalist books Strega Prize 2026 they mark one of the most anticipated moments for the Italian publishing scene. The so-called “dozen” represents not only a selection of quality titles, but also a mirror of contemporary narrative trends, capable of orienting readers and professionals. Here are the twelve finalist titles.
The reverse rose
by Maria Attanasio (Sellerio)
“In an old noble palace in Calacte, a city in eastern Sicily, at the beginning of the twentieth century a man discovered a secret room. Here he found the classics of the Enlightenment kept, alongside symbols and insignia of freemasonry. What attracted his attention was a manuscript, The Inverse Rose, an autobiographical story of Baron Ruggero Henares, the ancient owner of the palace”. (Sellerio)
Story of a friendship
by Ermanno Cavazzoni (Quodlibet)
“This is a book of adventures that happened to Gianni Celati (1937-2022) and the author, a book of literary passions, and of many other somewhat unhinged characters, met or passed through them; a book about life with its magic, with the most memorable events, and the fatal path towards the end, when the allotted time expires”. (Quodlibet)
Queen woman
by Teresa Ciabatti (Mondadori)
“Who really is ‘o Nasone, accused of armed robbery, criminal association, mafia association, 182 murders committed and commissioned? This is asked by the writer to whom the newspaper gives the task of interviewing him, the superboss. She who knows nothing about crime, who has always dealt with teenagers, at most singers, actresses, show business people. Theirs is the meeting of two very distant worlds”. (Mondadori)
Lina and the stone
by Mauro Covacich (The Ship of Theseus)
“Mauro Covacich composes a novel with perfect geometry, a modern fairy tale about the unpredictable combinations of feelings that rewrite our lives, illuminated by a little girl whose light shines, blinds, strikes. Following in Lina’s wake, inevitably, we find ourselves wearing a little of the iridescent dust that sows between these pages”. (The ship of Theseus)
The stone guests
by Michele Mari (Einaudi)
“Is the destiny of each of us really already written? This is what the former third grade students think when, having passed the final exam, they sign the “unfortunate pact” that will bind them until the last day. After all, school time is the only one that remains immobile: even after thirty years it will not be the wrinkles or the extra kilos that counterfeit the shape of an old classmate. But when the demon of competition and the mirage of a prize are involved. fabulous the variables multiply”. (Einaudi)
Plato. A love story
by Matteo Nucci (Feltrinelli)
“It is a summer morning in 415 BC and four boys are perched on a boulder that juts out above the port of Piraeus. The song of the cicadas covers the buzz of the crowd. There is a festive air, but the war looms, and the four are silent, absorbed. Among them there is a twelve-year-old with a feverish look. His name is Aristocle and, five years later, due to his broad shoulders, he will take a name destined for eternity: Plato. Next to him, on that decisive morning, the man who tells the story of this love story. (Feltrinelli)
I twist it
by Alcide Pierantozzi (Einaudi)
“What happens when reality breaks down, and lets hallucination in? When fear grips you and shortens your breathing? When the only way you have to be in the world is to live on a precipice, in the “twist” of things? Alcide Pierantozzi immersed himself in that precipice, and came out clutching in his hands a unique, literary and obsessive book, capable of telling us for the first time in a raw and true way, from the inside, a evil that befalls many.” (Einaudi)
The sleepwalker
by Bianca Pitzorno (Bompiani)
“Destiny rarely reveals itself from childhood: but that is precisely what happens to the protagonist of this novel, who has suffered from sudden fainting spells since childhood from which she awakens with the premonition of a future event. Her parents try to keep this gift of hers hidden and hope that a good marriage can keep her safe: and instead it is precisely that marriage that is the most dangerous place for her, who will be forced to flee as far away as she can to rebuild her life relying only on her own strength.” (Bompiani)
The invention of color
by Christian Raimo (The Ship of Theseus)
“Since he was a child, the protagonist of this novel has known that his father Raffaele invented something that revolutionized the history of cinema. It has always remained a kind of family secret, a private legend. It comes to his mind when in a very hot spring he dreams almost every night of his father, who had died ten years earlier. In these dreams – lucid and pervasive – Raffaele is still alive, he simply left home, without an explanation.” (The ship of Theseus)
Camus’ widows
by Elena Rui (The Footprint)
“On January 4, 1960, the Facel Vega driven by the famous publisher Michel Gallimard speeds along a road in Burgundy and crashes into a plane tree. In the passenger seat, Albert Camus, who only three years earlier had been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, dies instantly. While the whole world remains astonished, orphaned by one of the greatest intellectuals of the twentieth century, four women suddenly find themselves “widows” of the man they loved: his wife Francine Faure, the brilliant actress Catherine Sellers, the young painter Mette Ivers, of Danish origins, and Maria Casarès, an immense interpreter of the French theatre, who Camus himself – faithful to the paradoxes of feeling – defined as “the Unique”. (The footprint)
Dirty water
by Nadeesha Uyangoda (Einaudi)
“Weaving together the tumultuous history of Sri Lanka and the backdrop of provincial Italy, the lives of four women climb along paths paved with resentment, anger and bitterness, as they attempt to move forward while returning home.” (Einaudi)
Child’s eyes
by Marco Vichi (Guanda)
“Arianna is seven years old when her grandmother asks her a question that could change the lives of both of them: «Do you want to go to your mother or do you want to stay here?» Arianna is fine with her grandparents, she has lots of games, she can eat whatever she wants and at night she can sleep among them in the big bed. But she misses her mother…It’s 1985, and thus begins the adventure of a little girl who doesn’t yet know what her odyssey will be.” (Guanda)
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